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Thursday, June 30, 2011

On July 1, TIFF Bell Lightbox offers a full day of free programming that explores Canada’s rich cinematic heritage.

The films screened are C.R.A.Z.Y (2005, dir. Jean- Marc Vallèe), Voulez-vous coucher avec God? (1972, dir. Jack Christie and Michael Hirsh), Black Christmas (1974, dir. Bob Clark), and the documentary Mary Pickford, The Muse of the Movies (2008). This is the Canadian premiere of the film with director Nicholas Eliopoulos in attendance.

In addition, there will be a screening of Classic Canadian Shorts. The animated gems being shown are Blinkity Blank — dir. Norman McLaren (1955); Romance of Transportation in Canada — dir. Colin Low (1952); Walking - dir. Ryan Larkin — (1968); Log Driver’s Waltz — dir. John Weldon (1979); The Sweater — dir. Sheldon Cohen (1980); Crac! — dir. Frederic Back (1981); The Big Snit — dir. Richard Condie (1985); and The Cat Came Back — dir. Cordell Barker (1988).
A maximum of 2 tickets per person, per screening will be available starting at 10 a.m. There will be no rush line for these tickets.

Canada Day at TIFF Bell Lightbox

On July 1, TIFF offers a full day of FREE programming that explores Canada’s rich cinematic heritage.

Mary Pickford, The Muse of the Movies
dir. Nicholas Eliopoulos | USA 2008 | 102 min.
As our free exhibition Mary Pickford and the Invention of the Movie Star enters its final days in our Canadian Film Gallery, we present this recent documentary that traces the life and career of the legendary silent film star and industry pioneer. Narrated by Michael York, the film features archival interviews with Paramount founder Adolph Zukor, famed aviator Amelia Earhart, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Lillian Gish and Pickford’s third husband Buddy Rogers, as well as restored audio recordings of Pickford herself, telling her life story in her own words.
Director Nicholas Eliopoulos will be in attendance.
Following the screening, collector Rob Brooks—whose extraordinary donation to TIFF Bell Lightbox made the Mary Pickford exhibition possible—will be present in the Canadian Film Gallery to meet visitors and answer questions.
11:00 am

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Classic Canadian Shorts
Canadian cinema first came to international prominence through its animated films, which have received hundreds of international prizes including numerous Academy Awards. From Norman McLaren’s innovative visual language to the wild comedy of The Cat Came Back and the lovely nostalgia of The Sweater, these films explore Canadian myths, landscapes and traditions while pushing the boundaries of the medium.
1:30 pm

C.R.A.Z.Y.
dir. Jean-Marc Vallée | Canada 2005 | 127 min.
A wildly entertaining homage to the pop culture-saturated Montréal middle class of the seventies, C.R.A.Z.Y. is a rare combination of intimate, character-driven auteur film and universally appealing crowd-pleaser. Zachary Beaulieu (Marc-André Grondin) was born on Christmas Day, 1960, a fitting date for one destined for the road less travelled. His mom (Danielle Proulx)—who has a proclivity for ironing toast—certainly thinks her son is special. But can a sexually confused teenager with an affinity for Bruce Lee, John Lennon and David Bowie survive four rough-and-tumble brothers and win the affection of his loving but old-fashioned father (Michel Coté)? Brimming with humour and bittersweet drama, C.R.A.Z.Y. is a triumphant story about the challenges of growing up different.
4:00 pm

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Voulez-vous coucher avec God?
dirs. Jack Christie & Michael Hirsh | Canada 1972 | 69 min.
A long-lost piece of Canadian counterculture, Voulezvous coucher avec God? is an intoxicating (and perhaps intoxicated) journey into anarchy. Starring famed beat poet Tuli Kupferberg as a heavily bearded, blaspheming and bigoted God who rules from his bathtub perch in Hashish Seventh Heaven, the film is a cacophony of bizarreness, replete with wild animation, music by The Fugs and the stomach-churning consumption of a mouse omelette. Directed by Jack Christie and Michael Hirsh (who would go on to found renowned children’s animation company Nelvana) and, amazingly, made with funds from the Ontario Arts Council, this rare Canadian head trip reappears for the first time in years.
Co-director Michael Hirsh will be in attendance.
7:30 pm

---Black Christmas
dir. Bob Clark | Canada 1974 | 98 min.
Bob Clark’s legendary proto-slasher flick is gripping, terrifying and tawdry—in other words, a Canadian classic if ever there was one. A group of sorority girls start receiving creepy, anonymous phone calls, and when one of their number goes missing the girls know that something wicked has already arrived. But will the understaffed, inexperienced constabulary respond in time? Predating John Carpenter’s Halloween by four years, Black Christmas has all the requisite slasher-film elements, but its flesh-crawling slow burn also suggests a kinship with Italian gialli. Shot on the University of Toronto campus on a low budget, the film’s grisly inventiveness is still shocking after three decades.
9:30 pm